2009 upset fires up this year's Bulldogs

Posted: Thursday, May 13, 2010

By Chris Starrs

When No. 9 Georgia opens play today against No. 15 Tennessee in the first round of the Southeastern Conference tournament in Fayetteville, Ark., veteran Bulldogs will take the field mindful of what happened at last year's league tourney.

Having won 13 of their last 15 regular-season games, the then-No. 7 Bulldogs came into the tournament as the No. 3 seed and faced sixth-seeded Kentucky, which they had roughed up by a combined 18-2 score in a three-game sweep earlier in the season.

But instead of advancing to the semifinals and a date with Alabama, Georgia managed but five hits and was shut out 2-0 by the Wildcats.

In the big-picture scheme, early elimination from the SEC tournament was a mere bump in the road as the Bulldogs subsequently swept the Chapel Hill Regional and Athens Super Regional to advance to the school's first Women's College World Series.

"The returning players understand what happened last year and the thing we talk about the most is that last year, (losing to Kentucky) served as our kick-in-the-butt to get us going," junior infielder Alisa Goler said. "Hopefully, we've already had our wake-up call this year."

The Bulldogs (43-10, 18-8 SEC) are this year's fourth seed and will face the Volunteers (41-12, 17-8), who enter the tournament seeded fifth.

During the regular season, Georgia won two of three in Knoxville in what turned out to be a trio of close games.

And even though the Bulldogs are assured of a regional berth and could well earn the opportunity to host a super regional, they aren't ready to come home yet.

"I just know we want to go there, play our game and win the whole tournament," said junior center fielder Taylor Schlopy. "Last year, it didn't work out for us, but the probability of that happening again isn't likely."

"(The tournament) is very important in the sense that you're playing great competition and it helps your RPI, and if you win you keep playing and you're keeping up with your training," Goler added. "Luckily, we're in a situation where if we did get knocked out early, it's not like we're one and done. The biggest role the SEC tournament has is to prepare us for the rest of the postseason. We'd like to have a longer run than last year."

Georgia closed out the regular season winning 18 of its last 20 games, including a dynamic two-game sweep at No. 12 Texas. The Bulldogs defeated the Longhorns 9-0 in five innings and 11-5 in the season finale.

Schlopy thinks the team is about to hit its stride.

"As a whole, we're peaking at the right time," said Schlopy, who had five hits, five runs and three walks against Texas. "We've had some rocky points in the season, but we can't go back in time. We're peaking right now and I don't see a better time to do it. ... This past weekend in Texas is the most unified we've been this whole year as a team. We're just real excited about playing in the SECs because we're all feeling really good and playing as one."

"It's just a matter of getting hot at the right time," Goler added. "Right now, we're peaking and it's the end of the year, so you can't ask for anything more than that."